The search for an escaped pet monkey has drawn to a close after he was successfully captured after spending four days on the run, startling members of the community.
Bradley, a 15-year-old Japanese Macaque monkey, has spent the last six years living with his owner in Walterboro, South Carolina.
However, on Thursday, Bradley managed to escape from his habitat, according to a Facebook post by Colleton County Animal Services, and started a brief adventure exploring his neighborhood.
After he escaped, Bradley’s owner immediately contacted Colleton County Animal Services Director Laura Clark to notify her of his pet on the loose.
At that point, the owner felt they had a good chance of catching Bradley by themselves using his own resources; however, by Sunday morning, Bradley was still loose in the Walterboro area.
Ms Clark said in the release that animal control and the county’s sheriff’s office had received numerous tips about Bradley’s whereabouts.
However, Bradley’s escape and life on the run caught the attention of many people after news of the monkey began to be shared on social media and news channels, leading people to try to get a look at the monkey. Ms Clark said that this had been hampering the owner’s efforts to capture the escaped pet, so professionals had been hired, and personnel from the animal control team were called in to help bring Bradley home.
While she asked anyone who saw Bradley to keep a safe distance, a hotline set up especially for the monkey was available for people to call about his location.
The animal services added that Bradley is not considered dangerous or aggressive to people or other animals, but people should still be cautious as he was a wild animal while on the run.
The monkey visited many residents in the Walterboro area, which has a population of around 5,000, during his escape, including the grandmother of Kordell Brabham.
Mr Brabham told CNN that he did not believe what his grandmother was telling him at first when she was describing to him that she had spotted a monkey in the yard.
“Nana, I think you need to go inside; it may be a little too hot out here for you,” Mr Brabham said.
Not long after that, Mr Brabham stood corrected after he, too, saw the monkey his grandmother was talking about, walking on top of a shed before climbing into a nearby yard.
While the search was still underway, the sheriff’s office said that residents should “monitor” their pets as a prediction, as a primate is on the loose and “could be stressed.” This notice came after they received a report of the primate attempting to attack a resident’s dog in a yard, according to a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office telling WLTX.
Other residents, such as Barbara Taylor, came face-to-face with the money on Friday while retrieving a pocketbook out of her car.
“‘Oh my God,’ and he was standing right up under my metal carport right there," Ms Taylor recalled to the outlet. "Then he started walking toward the truck, and I just shut the door fast and climbed over to the driver seat, and I just pulled off because my phone was in the house... My heart is still beating fast, and my head is still hurting.”
By Monday, however, Bradley had been successfully captured, his owner told animal services, yet it remains unclear how exactly Bradley was caught.
“The outpouring of concern and information from Colleton County residents has been overwhelming, and we are thankful for the public’s support in helping to locate Bradley,” the services wrote. “We so appreciate the community’s support for animal welfare.”
